The first time Greg Drown saw Taylor Farmer pull a trigger, he knew she was special. They spoke of Farmer competing in Tokyo as a member of the Paralympic Team as that first shooting session together was just getting started the day they met.

Drown recognized Farmer’s talent with a rifle immediately.

“One of those 'in the right place at the right time' things,” said Drown, who will be inducted into Ohio State's Hall of Fame for his rifle career in September. “She needed some direction and we needed some direction and whatever force there was brought us together. It’s not luck. We got matched up.

“Here’s two people that are disabled. She was born with her disability (cerebral palsy) . She understands the struggle. Her and I, it was just special. We met and hit it off.”

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Farmer, who graduated from Margaretta High School in 2016, met Drown at Ohio Day at the Range at Camp Perry. Drown coached Farmer, who occasionally shot with her father and brother prior, twice a week when she lived in Castalia.

“We met September of 2015 and by December of 2017 she was already gone,” Drown said. “She moved to Colorado in December or January. In two years, she went from a high school kid to the Paralympic Team.

“The Tokyo Games in 2020 is her goal. She’s well on her way. There’s no reason she won’t be there.”

Farmer lives at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. She returns this month.

Drown, who competed at the Paralympic World Cup in 2011, also aspires to make the Paralympic Team. He competed able-bodied for the Buckeyes, was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and now shoots from a wheelchair, like Farmer.

Drown had to relearn how to shoot in many ways. The three positions now include, both elbows on a table (prone), one elbow on a table (kneeling) and shooting without the table (standing).

“It was definitely challenging,” Drown said. “Able-bodied and shooting out of a wheelchair is different. There’s similarities, but you have to learn the sport all over again. The positions are the same and some of the technique is the same, but it’s different.”

Taylor’s setup is similar to Drown’s. Drown, an engineer, has no patent on the table he designed and others have copied it, as a stable platform is the goal.

“They see it and see it works,” Drown said.

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Greg Drown and Taylor Farmer have developed a friendship through shooting.(Photo11: Doug Hise/Correspondent)

Some competitors and administrators, including friends, have made Drown and Farmer feel as though they think the two are cheating with their apparatus.